Louie Triathlon report

Ok, as promised here is my race report from the Louie Tri (turned Duathlon due to frigid water temps).

The day started remarkably bright and sunny for a San Fran Jan morning. It was still quite cold, so we bundled up and got ready to race. A reading of the water temp brought back a chilly 46 degrees, so the coaches called the swim and turned the race into a Duathlon. It was advertised as a 5K run, 40K bike, 10K run. But my trusty Garmin tells a different story. It reported a 3.35 mi run, 23.8 mi bike, 6.65 mi run.

I started the run with my pace partner Pete. That was great as he kept me going at a nice fast pace. We parted ways at the first transition and hopped on our bikes.

Then Pete left me in the dust on the bike course and I was off riding with some of my other teammates. The volunteers were great! There were people at every corner cheering us on, pointing the way, and sometimes even blocking traffic. The course was nice and flat so I was trying keep a faster pace. But the headwind on the island was particularly strong this morning, so on this leg I really struggled. Then there was all that pesky turning and avoiding potholes. But all in all it was a good ride and I felt good going into the last run leg.

After a quick transition I was off running again. I was trying to push my pace, but without my buddy Pete and with that bloody headwind still out there, I struggled. I kept finding myself easing off, then having to push again. But I mustered through and came through the finish at 2:57 total. If this had been a real Olympic tri that would have been my fastest time ever. Maybe I should switch to Duathlon (no swimming which means no riding and running with freezing feet either)! It was a great time!!!

Run = 27:22

Bike = 1:25:17

Run = 58:06

First broken resolution

So clearly keeping up my blog was a resolution I couldn't keep. Surprisingly I have been able to keep my "no caffeine" resolution! So here is a quick update of the last couple of weeks. Check back soon for my "Louie Tri" report which I will post as soon as I get the pictures back. And as always you can look at my workout log for specifics on training (I have been keeping that up to date).

Weekend of 1/6-7:

Headed up to Sonoma to ride a the lovely "Vineman Loop" this is a 52 mile loop that covers most of the Vineman course along the rolling hills of wine country. A really pretty ride. I came in dead last of our group, but I felt really good! Not bad considering this is the longest ride I have done in months! Sun I just swam in the pool in the morning and headed down to San Jose to have "Christmas" with my friend Meredith.

Weekend of 1/13-14

Rode Paradise loop with some IronTeam folks and some old friends from other seasons. It was a beautiful day, I really enjoyed the ride. Then we did a quick transition run. Sun we did our long run, usually one of my favorites. It was freezing (well for us anyway, there was frost on the ground) but again the day was clear and pretty. Unfortunately my stomach felt terrible so I really struggled for the whole run. NO MORE GLUTEN FREE BREAD!

Weekend of 1/20-21

The fantastic Louie Tri which turned into a Duathlon. For details stay tuned!

Holidays are over time to get serious

It seems that every entry starts with excuses on why it has been so long. Well this is no exception. First I was sick, then I had lots of house guests for the holidays, then I was just tired. But in the tradition of new year's resolutions, I hope to be better about updating this thing.

Sickness: It totally sucks and put me way behind in my training. I ended up having strep throat and then just as that was clearing up I got a cold. I lost my voice for a whole week (to some people's joy). So now I am struggling back into a schedule and trying to hang onto my health.

Holidays: This was the fun but exhausting part. I had 4 house guests, 7 guests for Christmas eve, and 9 guests for Christmas day. So there was a lot of preparations, cleaning, cooking, and entertaining, but it was a blast!

Christmas day - after opening our obscene amount of presents and eating the world's best Cinnamon rolls (thanks Ted) we started cooking for dinner. Then in the afternoon we took a little break and headed to Ocean beach. It was a lovely clear day and we had a great time walking along the beach and enjoying its beauty. Then it was home to finish cooking and start eating. We had such a wonderful time with lots of friends and family over for dinner. It was a great way to celebrate the holiday.

New Years Eve - We headed back to the beach after a fabulous dinner at Marnee Thai (with 2 Marnie's). We had gathered a few Christmas trees and bought some more wood and made a fabulous bonfire on the beach. What a great way to ring in the new year with wonderful people, the sound of the ocean, the smell of pine, and a roaring fire. I can tell it is going to be a great year!!!

I managed to squeeze in a few runs amidst all of the this celebrating, but not enough. So now I am back on my schedule and hope to gear up quickly for race season.

Hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday too. Happy New Year!!!

Brief weekend update

I want to tell you all about thanksgiving week with my family and my Dad's big 60th birthday race, but my Mom hasn't sent the pictures yet. So I am going to save that one for one day soon.

This weekend was a flurry of activity as training is picking up and the holiday season is bringing fun parties with it.

Sat we headed down to Pleasanton for a swim and bike. It turned out that we didn't get our permit for the pool so we just did the bike ride. It was cold but it was clear and sunny out and made for a nice ride over a few good hills and next to some vineyards. Since we missed the swim there when I came home I went to my normal pool and did the workout. Then I had to get in my disco nap and start preparing for a fun Sat night. First stop was Heather and Rob's housewarming. Good fun and I love their new place. Then it was off with the girls for a little girls night fun in the Haight. We flaunted our fishnets and had a great time. Last stop was another house party for Colleen's birthday.

Sun morning came way to early after a night out but I drug myself out of the house at 7:15 and headed to Aquatic Park. While the skies were still clear and sunny it was getting even colder (only 48 which is very cold for us). The first hundred yards in the water were brutal, I can not remember ever being that cold, my face, hands, and feet literally hurt. But we swam 1 mile around the perimeter (no attacking sea lions) then dried off for the run. I had to sit in my car with the heater on full blast for a few minutes to warm up. My feet were so cold I couldn't put on my shoes. So the run started a bit slow, but was nice once we got going and finally warmed up. Five and half miles later we were done for the day and rewarded ourselves with breakfast and Irish coffees (I had hot chocolate since I don't like coffee). All in all it was a great time!

The week in review

Having finished last week on the high note of finishing my 20 mile run, I was excited going into my first week of "taper" for the marathon. A pretty regular week for workouts, as usual the details are posted on my workout log (click link to right). I was very happy about track workout on Tues night. I was a bit concerned my legs would not be ready for that so soon after the big 20, but they actually felt fine. I felt better after the workout that before, I think it was what I need to finish loosening up the muscles.

This weekend we had another installment of "Iron University". Sat's class was on nutrition. I was really looking forward to this as I have been struggling on the longer bike rides to eat enough. While it was extremely helpful and informative, it was also a bit scary. Dr Scott trains professional triathletes so everything seemed a bit extreme. If you were to follow all of his recommendations there would be no alcohol, no caffeine, no fake sweeteners of any kind, no cows milk, and pretty much no gluten. That doesn't leave you much to enjoy! But his tips for eating during exercise were great. I am going to go get tested in his office to see if we can work on eating on my bike so I don't bonk!

Best part of the weekend was shopping and dinner with some girlfriends. My friend Megan came up from LA to visit for the first time in 5 years. The gang had a great time catching up (Meredith, Emily, and Megan)!

I don't know where to start...

Ok, Ok I know I have not been keeping this up to date like I promised. So here is a quick attempt to catch up on my training activities. For the painful details, please check my training log. So I have been mostly focusing on running to prep for the marathon with my Dad. It has shown me why I do Triathlons. Basically running for that long is terribly boring. Even though Sawyer Camp is a nice trail, along the resevoir, lots of trees changing color, it is not enough to make those runs seem any shorter. I would much rather spend 6 hours on a variety of athletic activities than 3 1/2 hours just running, especially by myself. Not my favorite, but it is all worth it for my Dad's goal of running a marathon for his birthday. So here are some pictures from my last couple of workouts (and dinners post workout). Stay tuned for the promised "South Africa" trip description.

Mariah and Bob sporting their cool Iron Team jackets 

Miami training

So once again I have been accused of being very lax on updating my blog, my training log, and everything else it is I am supposed to do. So I am streamlining things a bit. There is now a link on my blog site (look over to the right) for my training log. If you click on that you should be able to see what I am up to each week training wise. So on this blog I will just wax poetic about the last week.


I just got back from AABB in Miami (my big US meeting for work). There was a lot of work, a lot of eating, and a lot of drinking going on! So I am back on my diet, trying to detox for a day or two, and really looking forward to my weekend off (worked straight through last weekend so I am on 14 days of work). But I did manage to have a little fun while there catching up with my favorite customers and getting to know my new colleagues even better.

So I now vow to update my blog at least once a week and I will try to keep my training log up daily. So check back frequently!!!